Guest squall Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 TomTom to Launch First European Navigation Solution for Smartphones ~TomTom MOBILE enables pocket-sized navigation for smartphones~ Amsterdam, 22 June 2004 – TomTom, Europe’s leading personal and in-car navigation solution provider, today unveiled it is bringing navigation solutions for smartphones to market. TomTom MOBILE, which was first demonstrated at CeBIT in March 2004, will be launched across Europe for Series 60 and Microsoft Smartphone handsets in late Summer 2004. “By extending navigation technology into the smartphone arena, TomTom furthers its mission to bring leading-edge navigation solutions to a wider consumer audience.” said Harold Goddijn, TomTom’s chief executive officer. “As consumer interest in-car navigation grows, TomTom MOBILE enables smartphone users to turn their phones into a personal companion that will safely get them from A to B stress free.” Smartphones are powerful mobile devices with next-generation features, such as e-mail and large colour screens, as well as more information capability than traditional mobile phones. The increased processing power and memory size of smartphones enables them to bring new experiences to mobile phone users. TomTom MOBILE will support popular smartphones from companies such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and HTC. TomTom MOBILE will feature TomTom’s award winning navigation software pre-installed on MMC cards, requiring no installation or configuration. The solution will also offer wireless portability for effortless in-car fitting using the smallest and lightest GPS receiver on the market (Bluetooth–enabled with rechargeable battery). TomTom MOBILE’s on screen and voice instructions mean that the driver never needs to worry about taking their eyes off the road or worry about touching the phone to enter information. 3D mapping, turn-by-turn voice instructions, night and day settings, automatic re-routing, customisable points of interest (POI), postcode look-up and excellent street number coverage all add up to an impeccable navigation experience. Naturally, TomTom MOBILE offers continued visual instruction during voice calls. Drivers will also have the option to receive traffic information via GPRS. Real-time alerts will be sent straight to the driver and offer an on-screen, bird’s eye view of any traffic incidents or general traffic jams for any given journey. The product has the backing of mobile operators and handset manufacturers who are keen to increase customer take up of the latest mobile phone technology. “We are proud and excited to offer our solutions on the leading Symbian OS and Microsoft platforms and look forward to continuing this collaboration into the future,” continued Goddijn. TomTom MOBILE will be on sale in late summer in UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and the Nordics. Source - tomtom.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest blewer Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Can't wait for this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr_Protozoa Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 should be pretty smart. all i need now is a car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dr_StrangeTrick Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Funny that I emailed TomTom Nov last year and they said that the smartphone platform was too slow, did not have enough memory and that the screen would be too small :? Looks like the guys at Mapopolis must have made them see the light... I will look forward to this and the Route 66 version as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brody Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Too slow: It's a lot faster with the new OS Not enough memory: It's double on new devices when compared to what it was a year ago Screen too small: WM2003 SE provides support for a higher resolution screen So maybe thats why they've changed their mind? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dr_StrangeTrick Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Don't get me wrong I am not knocking them, the more products we get in this area then the better as they will all improve to catch up with each other. The original post for TomTom was about 2 months ago and their website mentioned the E200 which has the same screen size, is only a bit faster although it does have more memory. But to be honest Mapopolis do have full European maps so it is not strictly true to say TomTom will be the first :roll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rhaleuk Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Well i am really looking forward to this. 100% - Especially the small GPS they are launching with it! Good one TomTom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brody Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Dr_StrangeTrick: I didn't mean to sound attacking, I was just making an interesting point about how the platform has developed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Screen too small: WM2003 SE provides support for a higher resolution screen Ah, but as we found out today that is only to provide smoother text, not smaller characters! ;p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jimbou Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Which cities are supported? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dr_StrangeTrick Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 No problems, I did not take this as an attack. You have raised valid points and future versions of all products should be fantastic as it is now clear to TomTom, Route 66 and Mapopolis that demand is there for the Smartphone platform, and it may well be the biggest in terms of personal navigation. Slightly off topic but I was on site with one of our customers yesterday who had just spent £800 on the Navman iCN-630 (wow!!!). Did you know this unit is supplied 'blank' you have to upload the software, activate the software, then upload the maps (only 64Mb memory!!) and activate them as well before you can use it... He bought his unit on the way into work and at 11:00am he had spent over 2 hours with their tech support trying to get it working. He saw Mapopolis running on my E200 and when I finished at 3:00pm he was taking his iCN-630 back then heading for the nearest Orange shop :D which just goes to show I personally think that their will be no stopping the MS Smartphone platform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mcwarre Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 So maybe thats why they've changed their mind? :D Nah, More likely they saw a market and potential sales!! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lordpercy Posted June 26, 2004 Report Share Posted June 26, 2004 Tom Tom is the best S/W in this market for me, on a mobile would make a lot of sense as the Tom Tom traffic uses GPRS and then hooks intot he PDA from a mobile using bluetooth so its logical to get rid of the PDA at some point. My only experience of mobile naviagtion was the wayfinder system Review Here which was ok but the screen size really ruins it. LP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dr_StrangeTrick Posted June 27, 2004 Report Share Posted June 27, 2004 I don't have TomTom but I used one of my colleagues IPAQ with TomTom3 a few times and while it is good and has lots of extra features I found Mapopolis 100 times better for the actual job of getting me somewhere I don't know. I have bee using it about 3-4 times a week for the last few months and it has not let me down once. It has taken me via the scenic route sometimes but like I said when I don't know where I am or where I am going I don't care as long as I get there and on time. One other point that amazed me and my TomTom friend is the quality of the maps. On no less than 5 occasions TomTom3 (Latest version just released) simply did not have the roads I was looking for, does not have the M6 Toll etc. Mapopolis with its maps from Nov last year has every road I have been looking for, the M6 Toll and even more amazingly, I live in Birmingham and for the last few years the Bull Rings has been rebuilt. This project opened back in Febuary and all of the new roads, one way systems etc are on Mapopolis and their next map update is due sometime in July, so even better. don't get me wrong I am not knocking TomTom and I am looking forward to the Smartphone product, I just hope that the Smartphone version will be completely new re-write of the product and not just a port of their existing PDA version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pagemakers Posted June 30, 2004 Report Share Posted June 30, 2004 I've got the Bluetooth TT3 for PPC in my car. It's better than any in-car system I have ever seen. Pity TT don't make GPS systems for car manufacturers. Got mapopolis as well. TT is my preference though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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